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Pac-12 Weekly Honors: Week 15

Posted by AMurawa on February 27th, 2012

Team of the Week

Washington – In coming back from what was a 13-point deficit with just 11 minutes left, the Huskies not only managed to pull off a season sweep of Apple Cup rival Washington State, they also, combined with California’s loss on Sunday, vaulted themselves into sole ownership of first place in the Pac-12. While their win over WSU certainly wasn’t a thing of beauty, the Huskies managed to gut one out, overcoming Terrence Ross’ foul trouble and ineffectiveness to put it away down the stretch. Despite shooting just 62.2% from the line for the season, the Huskies shot made 78.9% of their 19 second-half free throws, including 58%-free-throw-shooter Tony Wroten knocking down seven of his nine attempts in the second half. With a road trip to the Los Angeles schools the last remaining hurdle on the Husky schedule, it looks like it comes down to this: beat UCLA at the Sports Arena on Saturday and claim the regular season conference title.

Kyle Fogg Is Wrapping Up His Arizona Career With His Best Basketball Yet (Chris Morrison/US Presswire)

Player of the Week

Kyle Fogg, Senior, Arizona – Fogg has been rock-steady in his four seasons in Tucson, but with his career rapidly coming to a close, he has begun showing a newly developing personality: glass-eating double-double machine. After going 130 games as a Wildcat without once grabbing 10 or more rebounds, in the past four games Fogg has recorded two double-doubles, two near-misses with nine rebounds and has averaged 15.8 points and ten rebounds per game over that stretch. This week it was 18 points and 10.5 rebounds per night in helping to orchestrate a home-sweep of the Los Angeles schools and keeping the Wildcats in line for a opening-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament. He came to Tucson as a Lute Olson recruit, but never played a minute for the icon whose health forced him to retirement. But over the years, Fogg has become a fixture in Tucson. When the Wildcats eventually open up the Pac-12 Tournament, Fogg will tie Jason Gardner for most games played in Arizona basketball history and he ranks in the top ten in the school’s list for minutes played and three-pointers.

Newcomer of the Week

Byron Wesley, Freshman, USC – It hasn’t exactly been a season to remember for the Trojans, but if one were to search for some kind of silver lining in the 1-15 conference record punctuated by an absurd number of injuries to key performers, it could be that the minutes that younger players have been forced to play could serve future SC teams well. Wesley is a great example. He came into the program this season with the reputation of a guy who could be a future defensive force for the Trojans, but whose offensive game lagged far behind. His defensive intensity earned him minutes from the get-go, but aside from a couple blips here and there, his offensive performance matched his reputation. However, over the season as his minutes have mounted (he hasn’t played less than 30 minutes in a game since mid-December and is averaging over 37 minutes per game in February), he’s been getting more and more looks on offense. In February, he’s averaging almost 14 field goal attempts per game, and this week he made the most of those attempts, scoring 20 points per night and shooting 57.1% from the field, while adding seven rebounds per game along with 1.5 steals and 1.5 assists per outing.